-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- For the residents of Christchurch , New Zealand , time stopped at 12.51 pm on February 22 , 2011 , when a massive earthquake ripped through the city , destroying homes , lives and businesses .

One year on , reminders are never too far away , from the broken buildings to frequent aftershocks that rattle the city every day . Some are too minor to feel ; others cause a sharp intake of breath .

`` February , 22 , 2011 ... is a date permanently etched into all of our minds , a date that will go down in the history of New Zealand as one of our darkest days , '' Prime Minister John Key told crowds gathered for a civic memorial service in the city Wednesday .

The magnitude 6.3 quake shook the city for a matter of seconds , but it was long enough to kill 185 people from 14 countries . Many more were injured .

The tremor brought down buildings in the city center in the middle of the working day , trapping workers and triggering a national state of emergency as rescuers scrambled to save lives . Most of the victims -- 115 -- were buried in the rubble of the Canterbury Television -LRB- CTV -RRB- building , which was later found by a government report to have been poorly constructed .

One survivor , Anne Vos , spoke to the media by cellphone as she lay trapped under her desk in the rubble of the five-story Pyne Gould Corporation building . After being pulled out , 24 hours later , she told CNN , `` I was finding it hard to breathe , and I really thought that was it for me . I thought ` this is it - I 'm not coming out of here . ' ''

Anne Vos : A survivor 's story

One year later , Christchurch remains locked in recovery mode , a city carved into zones labeled by color to indicate the severity of the earthquake damage to homes and land .

For residents in the red zone , there is no future there . Around 6,800 homes , many clustered along the Avon River , have been designated for destruction .

The government says around 46 % of residents in the red zone have accepted its offer to buy their land . Some have cut their ties with the area ; others are still wading through insurance claims on homes waiting to be destroyed .

Before the quake , 22-year-old desktop publisher Sarah Boyd lived with her partner in Avonside , a small suburb that has now been condemned .

`` It was a tiny wee suburb and nearly every house there has gone , '' she said . `` They said that our house was sinking towards the river . They reckon all land would travel towards the river . ''

They moved out of the red zone in November , but Boyd said their new home suffered damage during the February quake and subsequent aftershocks , and may also need to be demolished .

Boyd works at the office at the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch , which suffered a blow during the quake with the near collapse of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament . It is currently being propped up with shipping containers while work continues to determine exactly how much of the building can be saved .

The brightly-colored containers can been seen dotted through the city , at the makeshift `` Re : Start '' mall in the city center and along roads below unstable cliffs considered to be at risk of landslide .

`` It 's a city of two parts really , '' said Matt O'Connell , the earthquake recovery coordinator for the Catholic Diocese , who works in the same office as Boyd . Last week he took part in an Ecumenical door-knocking team made up of representatives from varying faiths in the city .

`` Even just on one street we met a family there who are struggling for food who had eight to ten people living in a two-bedroom house , '' he said . `` A lot of people are tired , stressed and frustrated . The rebuild seems to be going relatively slowly . There are lots of issues . ''

Recovery efforts are being hampered by frequent aftershocks . The February 22 quake was one itself , after a larger , magnitude 7.1 quake the previous September . That one ran deeper so caused less damage . The government said there have been 10,000 quakes since last September , including 39 of a magnitude of five or greater .

`` We had a really good run from June until December the 23rd , then we got hit with a magnitude six quake , two days before Christmas . It really , really set people back . There was further damage , no one was injured , but it was a psychological blow for many people , '' O'Connell said .

While people struggle to recover , work continues to rebuild shattered buildings and infrastructure .

Prime Minister Key has said the recovery plan is making `` good progress . '' Construction has started on 26 `` significant '' commercial buildings in the city center . Work on 80 % of the 1,406 buildings marked for partial or full demolition has been completed . And 200 infrastructure repair projects are now underway , he said .

`` Long term Christchurch will look much different but it will be vibrant , new and a great place to live , '' Key added .

Thousands have not stayed around to find out . Population figures released in October , the first numbers made public since the quake , showed more than 10,000 people had left the city in the year to June 2011 .

On the eve of the anniversary , the city buried the unidentified remains of four people who were killed in the quake in a new cemetery . It will be one of the more somber reminders of that day .

The city came to a halt for two minutes at 12.51 local time , as residents paid their respects to those who were killed . Tomorrow they 'll get back to the long , drawn-out task of rebuilding their lives and moving forward .

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Magnitude 6.3 quake shook city on February 22 , 2011

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185 people died , thousands of buildings destroyed

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Recovery progressing slowly , many residents frustrated

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Key : New Christchurch will be `` vibrant , great place to live ''